This #EarthDay2021 I want to highlight a big step in @Microsoft's efforts to put technology to work for environmental sustainability: the launch of the Planetary Computer https://planetarycomputer.microsoft.com . It's in private beta, but anyone can use the data and STAC API today! 1/n

The Planetary Computer (PC) hosts open datasets for public use. We currently have four datasets indexed in our STAC API, but host many more on Azure. We will be onboarding and indexing many more datasets in the months to come, so stay tuned!

Just because data is available does not make it accessible. The PC provides a STAC API that allows spatiotemporal search across the assets we host. This provides rich metadata at the Item level that allows users to find and understand each granule of data we index.

Accessible data is not enough either! That data needs to be combined, transformed and analyzed at scale. We provide a JupyterHub environment loaded with open source tools and hosted on @Azure that users can leverage to extract insights from that data.

Insights need to be operationalized to have impact. That's why we're building an ecosystem of applications powered by the PC that target specific areas where technology can accelerate the ability to monitor, model, and ultimately manage Earth's natural systems.

Responding to the call to protect our Earth is a task much larger than any one organization or technology. The PC is built on and built to support the open community of collaborators in this common cause, and is focused around open data, open standards, and open source.

That support isn't just in words only - we're the diamond sponsors of @FOSS4G, a top level sponsor to the recent #GDAL and @STACspec fundraising efforts, and are actively contributing engineering time to push forward the open source tools and tech we leverage.

The work done as part of the @stacspec and @pangeo_data ecosystems have been key components in the PC's architecture, and we're excited to continue working with those communities to bring those technologies to bear for environmental sustainability.

The PC is not being built by Microsoft alone. We have an amazing set of partners that are providing data, building out key architectural components of the platform, and building applications powered by those data and tooling.

Openly licensed data provided by organizations like
@NASA, @USGS, @esa, @USDA, @forestservice,
@NOAA, @GBIF, @natureserve and @informatics_lab are the foundation of so much environmental sustainability work. Thank you!

The PC would not be possible without the tremendous efforts of engineering teams at organizations like @esri, @Azavea, @Element84, @Sparkgeo, @developmentseed, @makepathGIS and @sinergise. Thank you!

Organizations like @nature_org (with @marxan_planning), @vizzuality, @carbonplanorg, and #conservationsciencepartners are already building amazing, impactful applications using the PC's data and services. Thank you!

To everyone in the open source and environmental sustainability communities - or however you may identify - doing work to protect our Earth: Thank you! We hope to more closely collaborate soon.